Comstock Metals enters into a joint venture agreement with E3 Metals

Comstock Metals (CSL.V) has announced it has entered into a joint venture with E3 Metals (ETMC.V), a company focusing on petro-lithium assets in Alberta. ETMC already has a total resource of 6.7 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (‘LCE’) on three different petro-lithium assets. That’s indeed a very large resource but at an average grade of 50-80 mg/liter, the grade is indeed very low (when compared to the traditional lithium brine operations) and this makes E3 Metals more a technology company rather than a mining company as it will need to apply technology to ensure the rapid and efficient extraction of the lithium from the brine. According to ETMC’s corporate presentation, that’s exactly what it plans to do this year and next year.

The details of the joint venture remain very vague, as there is no information about the required (cash?) contribution from Comstock Metals. We hope to see more details over the next few days, and will enquire whether or not Comstock is still looking at the US-based lithium asset it previously discussed in its corporate updates.